Ross-shire, forty-six Stags were shot by the tenant and his two sons in one
day by this means, and Mr. Walter Winans, a noted shot, killed in one day,
August 17, 1876, in the Danie Beat, Glen Strathfarrer, Inverness-shire, no
fewer than eleven Stags as the result of one stalk, which is probably a record
in modern times. Not the least remarkable part of the affair is that there should
have been eleven ‘ shootable’ beasts together in a party of fourteen Stags.
Almost every large Deer-forest has produced its white hart, or hind, and
I have notes of s» many that it is unnecessary to give details. So long ago as
1622 we find James VI. writing to Sir Duncan Campbell of Glenurchy, known as
‘ Black Duncan of the Cowl,” about a white hind which existed in Corriechiba
(Corrie-Ba, i.e. the Black Mount) in the following words,::
‘We greet you well. Having understood that there is in your bounds a
white hind, we have sent this bearer, one of our servants, to take and transport
her hither unto u s ; and because that country is altogether unknown to him, we
have thought good hereby to recommend him to you most earnestly, requiring
you to assist him and cause him to be refurnished with all things necessary,
as well for taking of the said hind as for his- own entertainment; and, nothing
doubting of your best endeavour for accomplishing of this our pleasure, we bid
you farewell. Given at our Manor of Theobalds the 13th day of January, 1622/
Accordingly, says the Earl of Onslow1 :
“ ‘Johne Skandebar, Englishman, with other twa Englishmen,” was despatched
for the purpose. The king's messenger had apparently neither the skill in
hunting nor the means to take the animal, for a second attempt was subsequently
made which proved equally unsuccessful, and later we find the king himself
writing a special letter of thanks to Black Duncan for the facilities given, and of
regret at their want of success.’
Curiously enough, I saw a nearly pure white hind close to Corrie-Ba in the
Black Mount in 1886. White Stags have been killed in Invergarry, Glenquoich,
Loch Luichart, Glen Doe, Guisechan, and many places, and recently one
frequented Strath Conan and Braulen, and is, I believe, still alive.
White Red Deer are at the present day kept in parks at Windsor (H^i
Majesty the King), Welbeck (the Duke of Portland),, Woburn (the Duke of
Bedford), and at Langley (Sir Robert Harvey).
Abnormalities in the horn growth of Red Deer are not very common when
compared with the number of those which occur among Roe. Three-horned
1 Badminton Magazine, January 1904.